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Kozue Matsumoto
Kozue Matsumoto (松本 梢江, Matsumoto Kozue) is a fictional character from anime and manga series of Baki the Grappler. She is Baki Hanma's schoolmate and the daughter of Baki's landlady. In further part of the series, Kozue is also his girlfriend. Personality She is Baki's girlfriend and her mother, Kinuyo Matsumoto, is Baki's landlord. Kozue is usually a quiet and quite shy girl. In the first anime season, she was presented in a similar way, but seemed to be a little bit more energetic. She cares deeply for Baki, but denies when asked. She is disillusioned by Baki's violent life as an Underground fighter and begs him several times to quit. Though she still disapproves, Kozue better understands Baki's resolve after visiting Emi Akezawa's grave site. After Baki's first tournament match, he reveals that he cares for Kozue. She became his love interest in the second series, and makes love with him just before his fight with Yanagi Ryuukou, allowing Baki to become a "full man". It should also be noted that Yujiro Hanma views her as an excellent woman for Baki. Yujiro also states: "that little bastard got the best woman in the world", after she helped Baki cure the poison left by Ryuukou Yanagi. For some time in the series, Kozue and Baki had an incredible emotional bond, but then it changed a bit. Probably because of Mohammad Alai Jr who started to mix up in their relationship in some point of the second manga series. Though she appears to have a passive and soft personality, she has no problem asserting herself. When Kaoru Hanayama approaches Baki while with Kozue and questions their relationship as an inhibiting factor of Baki's fighting progress and offering alternative situations for Baki to have sex outside of a committed relationship, Kozue firmly confronts Hanayama and scolds him for disrespecting their relationship. She criticizes how men overall prioritize fighting and competition so much that the women in their lives are entirely excluded from consideration as significant factors in their decisions or how they are affected by their dangerous way of life. She goes as far as lightly kicking his leg each time she makes a statement. Kozue is able to show great courage during various battles of Baki, wanting to motivate him or show her support. Moments before Baki fights Ryuukou Yanagi, she wants to help in the fighting. Despite not understanding the level of danger and skill Yanagi possessed, her supportive nature and her courage as his partner is constructive for Baki in the long term. She also steps between Baki and Yujiro while they were "flirting" during their fight, even scolding them for beating around the bush. Kozue notes that they continually stop and have chats during the fight. She calls them out on it, but it's because they are trying to make the fight last longer as they are fighting the one person on Earth who can bring out their full strength. Appearance Kozue is a pretty girl with brown eyes and hair. In the OVA version, her hair was black and glowed slightly in dark blue color. Kozue has quite long hair, which she often braids. At the beginning of the first series, she had a fringe pulled on her forehead. During the Maximum Tournament saga, she started to pull her fringes up two sides, emphasizing the middle parting in her hair. In the second manga series, Kozue decided to pull her fringe to the side, uncovering her forehead, although in anime she does not show as much forehead as in manga. She also stopped braiding her hair and started wearing a ponytail. In later chapters, she also started to wear her hair down more often. He usually dresses in ordinary clothes, without presenting some overtly striking style of clothing. She can be often seen wearing her school uniform. In the first two anime seasons, she was wearing a dark school uniform, but in the third season, she started to wearing a school uniform with a white t-shirt. Kozue is a girl with a pretty small physique, but also quite shapely. At first glance, she does not stand out especially among other Japanese teenagers. Her height is average. She is not much lower than Baki Hanma, who is less than 170 cm tall, so Kozue is certainly about 160 cm tall. History 'Baki the Grappler' Underground Arena Saga Kozue is shown for the first time when Baki comes home after winning the Shinshinkai Karate tournament. Then it turns out that she is his neighbor and her mother is his landlord. When he's not home, Kozue feeds Musashi, Baki's dog. A scene is shown where Kozue brings Baki dinner from his mother and kindly points out that he hadn't been to school for a long time. In that moment it can be seen that Kozue shows some signs of worrying about Baki. Then he talks to his mother about the fact that he's still just training and ignores any remarks about going to school. Once on the way to school, Kozue asks Baki why he is still training so hard. He answers that he just want to be the strongest man in the world. Kozue doesn't take it seriously when a school boxing champion, Takayama, suddenly appears and interrupts them. Some time later, Kozue notices a situation in which Baki leaves school in a mysterious and tasteful car. At that moment, Kozue doesn't know what kind of life Baki is really leading. Shortly before Baki fights Mount Toba, Kozue is kidnapped and abducted by some school thugs. Her school friend, Mai, notifies the police about it, but the problem is ignored. Baki gets into action when Mai explains the case to him. Baki finds Kozue and the school thugs, and then knocks them out and releases her. This theme only takes place in the anime series and never appears in the manga. When Baki returns from the Underground Arena after winning a fight with Kureha Shinogi, he knocks on the Kozue's door late at night and asks her to take care of Musashi temporarily, as he decides to go on a little trip for a few days. Kozue is surprised, but she agrees. Maximum Tournament Saga Before the start of the Maximum Tournament, Baki notices that Kozue is peeping at him as he is about to get in the car that will take him to the Underground Arena. Baki decides to tell her his secret and invites her to go with him. Kozue is shocked when they enter the Tokyo Dome together and go to the sixth floor underground. After a while, the surprised girl sees a locker-room full of martial artists and the relaxed Baki informs her that they are his oponents. Kozue learns that he is a champion of the Underground Arena and then witnesses his conversation with his former challengers, such as Kosho Shinogi and Mount Toba. When Baki defeats Andreas Regan, winning his first duel in the tournament, Kozue stops him in the hallway and asks why they all do it. Kozue explains to him that she doesn't understand the sense of brutal hurting themselves in the ring. Baki explains to her that every man at least once in his life has dreamt of becoming the strongest in the world, and therefore some people are still fighting to make their dreams come true. Kozue tries to understand Baki, but still his "dream" seems to be a terrifying thing for her. Later, in the tournament, Kozue witnesses the fights that takes place in the arena. At some point she meets Jack Hammer in the hallway. He starts talking to her. Jack seems to be trying to flirt with her. He even draws attention to her eyes. Baki notices the scene and gets angry. Eventually, Jack turns his back and walks away. It is unknown whether Jack really liked Kozue or it was just an attempt to provoke Baki. During the tournament, Kozue also sees Yujiro Hanma, Baki's father, for the first time. At some point Kozue accidentally overhears a conversation between Jack Hammer and Alexander Gallen in the hallway. It makes her extremely scared and worried about Baki's life. Out of concern for him, she throws herself around his neck and hugs him with tears. Before the start of the final fight in the tournament, Baki lies down on Kozue's lap and relaxes before his match with Jack. Moment before the start of the final, Baki is having an important conversation with Kozue in the corridor. The underground arena champion initiates a kiss with Kozue, for the first time showing his affection in a more open way. In the middle of the fight between Baki and Jack, troubled Kozue gets up from the audience and asks Baki to let go of the match and not to hurt himself anymore. However, the girl's proposal does not convince a young fighter. 'Baki' Most Evil Death Row Convicts Saga When Baki heals his injuries after the Maximum Tournament, Kozue goes on a first date with him. They talk about their kiss in the Underground Arena's corridor. Baki also tells her that he planned to invite her on a date for a long time. At some point, they kiss again. This is the first time they've done this under seemingly normal conditions. However, during the kiss, Spec, an escaped prisoner from America, tries to attack them, but he is stopped by Kaoru Hanayama who takes him away from Baki and Kozue. The girl doesn't even notice that something has happened, saying that the evening is very nice and peaceful. Abilities Kozue has no combat skills. Furthermore, for a long time she was absolutely incapable of understanding how men can practise martial arts and fight brutal duels with other fighters. Later, however, her level of forbearance increased significantly. Anyway, it is worth mentioning that at some point of the series she was a great source of motivation for Baki and gave him a lot of strength. When Baki was poisoned by Yangi, there was a scene in which he was laying half-conscious on the ground and she began to cry out of fear for her beloved, benting over him. Her tears began to fall on Baki's face in large quantities and also fall into his mouth. Kaioh Retsu and Kaioh Ri stated that her contribution in Baki's later recovery could be quite big. From a biological point of view, Kozue's tears probably could not really had a significant effect during a healing of the poisoned body, but it can be said that her extremely caring love for Baki can have a great influence on his condition. Once even Yujiro Hanma admitted that he saw something special in Kozue and believes that she would give Baki even more strength. To sum up, Kozue does not have extraordinary abilities that she could use by herself, but she is able to give great strength to her beloved. When they had their first sexual intercourse and formed even stronger emotional bond together, Baki really seemed to become much stronger. Gallery Kozue ova.png|Kozue Matsumoto in the OVA. Kozue Matsumoto.png|Kozue Matsumoto in the first season. Kozue render 2018.png|Kozue Matsumoto 3rd season render. Kozue 2018 e e0.png|Kozue Matsumoto in the third season. Category:Characters Category:Female Category:Japanese characters